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Momma was UM. Poppa was UM. Going to U of M games since age 7. Older Bro was UM Younger Bro was UM and I went to Cornell because at 5'11" and 180 lbs I was not going to play LB or strong safety at UM. Must say I wasn't good enough to play at Cornell either after ripping up my L knee as a sophomore. I did grow up close to Cleveland and my dad also had Browns tickets when I was a kid and I still have my pro afilliations there though I suffer along with my freinds who are Lions fans as well.

I noticed that the RB's were sometimes not patient enough to wait for seams to open up. There were several running plays where a slight hesitation or cut back would have turned 2 yards into 7. Still I felt that the O line had no push against the D line and the LB's and DB's were able to fill. The O line seemed more solid on pass plays and I noticed as Matti dialed up the blitzes that the O was more successful rolling the QB out and making completions. Multiple great catches by WR's with DB's all over them also. My brother mentioned to me after the scrimmage that he remembers Vikings teams from the late 70's that used a lot of short passes to the RB (Foreman) to get into open space and this substituted pretty well for a weak running game.

I suggest you consider listening to them on discs or on audio books unabridged. The reader (a guy named Dotrice) is spectacular with different voices for all the different characters. If you have a long commute every day or a long trip planned this is wonderful way to make the time pass. I have read all the books and i am now listening to the story at about the same place in the story as the HBO show is now. I love all three and have found that each experience has been exceptional in its own way. HBO has really done an amazing job of adapting these stories to film and as usual on HBO the acting is superb. PS Was there a thread on True Detective? This was amazing TV as well.

Yes- Canteen looked great but so did Funchess, York, Chesson, Dukes, Norfleet, and even Wangler who seems to have great hands. Jake Butt is likely to be back early in the season but AJ Williams, Khaleed Hill looked pretty good as well catching the ball. Shallman, Kerridge and Houma all looked good running routes and had some nice catches in practice as well. All the backs seemed pretty effective catching pases out of the backfield although Green was not as sure handed as Hayes. Even Capatina (walk on?) who holds for place kicking got some reps at slot and made some nice catches in traffic. I think receiver is very strong and Harris just adds to this list. The reciever corps may be the strongest and deepest area of our roster right now on offense. Nice to have great QB's throwing to them also.

His players genuinely seem to like each other and support each other and play as a team with very little selfishness. The other coaches had some teams that played that way (especially Orr) but Coach B seems to have created an atmsophere where that kind of team work is the rule not the exception. Also these teams are the most fun to watch partly because of his offensive strategy. If he could get just a little more intensity of defense we could be in basketball Nirvana.

I took the total number of games played against top 50 RPI by each conference and calculated the winning percentage.

The ACC played 115 games against RPI top 50 and had a .287 winning percentage. For SOS this comes to playing 7.66 games per team against the top 50

The Big 12 (which is actually the big 10) played 141 games against top 50 and won .418 of them. SOS 14.1 games per team against top 50

BIg East played 79 games v. the top 50 and won .266 SOS is 7.9 games per team against top 50

Big 10 (which is actually the big 12) played 119 games agaisnt top 50 and won .370. SOS 9.91 games per team against the top 50.

For those with more ambition than I have, feel free to calculate the winning percentage against the other grouping and compare but this data is enough for me to conclude that the Big 12 (10) is the best conference so far this year. As others have pointed out, the conference playoffs and national tournament will give us a better view of the accuracy of this conclusion.

There are market places for predictions of elections and other future events. I am no expert but doesn't the Vegas line just depend on who is betting and they just try to balance the money on both sides. Is than not somewhat like crowd sourcing/prediction markets?

I found this article (admittedly written by Ohio economists) that suggests that the betting line is not very predictive for NCAA B ball but is better for NFL and NCAA football. They say overall betting markets like the Vegas line are not all that predictive. Hmmmm

He draws a lot of attention when he drives. Once he learns to hit the open man when the defense collapses on him, he will be even more dangerous especially on this team with our great outside shooters. As noted, he may not be as careless as he looks and he certainly can be exciting to watch. No one else on the team has that crazy jump stop move.

THe last several weeks the B1G had three teams in the top 10 and we beat them all two on the road. No way this team (or the B1G) should be without at least one or two teams in the top 10 and thus sayeth KenPom as well.

Where is the Babel fish when you need him? By the way looking at 2012 and now at the 2013 Kate in the SI swimsuit edition, she has put on some weight in a nice sort of way. (Maybe it was advised given the shoot was in Antarctica. BRRRRR!)

They also look to have one of the highest attempt rates on 4th. Wonder what is going on there? There is evidence that you should always go for it on 4th down especially any time you are across the 50. The yardage gained by punting is rarely worth the lost opportunity to score if you do convert the 4th down in your opponents territory.

When I read the series I thought that it would be interesting to post the Custer quote but thought it was too OT to post. Thanks for the courage to post it. It is a great series of short articles that contains some nice insights that surprised me even though I have read quite a bit about the Civil War and Gettysburg in particular. For example that Custer wore a red bandana around his neck and his men were worried that it would single him out so they all began to wear red bandanas to protect him.

The series is also interesting because he invited other experts to comment on his writings blog style and some of those comments were also enlightening. "Come on you Woverines!"

My brothers and I grew up in a household with both parents who were Michigan grads. All three of us have Michigan degrees. My father was a friend of Bump Elliot and had meet and greet parties for him at our home in Lorain,Ohio, I remember going to Michigan football games as a kid. I know that I saw Bob Timberlake play and win at the Big House though I am not sure who we played that day. My brother and I still sit in seats that our parents had for years. All three of my children are Michigan grads and my 31 year old son still comes to some games every year although he lives in Chicago. This blog is a great place to share our legacy and love of the U of M with others. Thanks to all on this blog who contribute and continue to enrich my own experience by sharing their thoughts and experiences. Thank to those whose posts educate me about the U of M and the sports I love. I am a better fan and alum because of it.

The Syr/Lou game video shows some of what Izzo talks about in his coaching vid. Louisville has a couple of plays where someone sneaks in behind the zone and several drive and kick plays similar to what Izzo is talking about. .What also is apparent from the game video is that the Louisville center has a nice 15 foot shot if the zone backs off him. Also the center makes lots of key passes as the offense seems to run a lot from an entry pass to the center at the high post. I hope that our bigs will have excellent shooting touch and passing savvy next Saturday.

We lost twice to an outstanding Illinois team in 1989 before beating them in a thrilling national semifinal in 1989, We then went on to win the title against Seton Hall with Rumeal Robinson making the key free throws at the end. This is the flashback that came to my mind.

Maybe this is our year to beat Indiana in the semis and beat whoever makes it through in the final game. Much like this year, we were undefeated in pre conference play with all our losses occurring in conference play. There were multiple Big Ten teams in the tourney in 89 as expected this year. Indiana won the Big Ten but lost twice to Illinois and recieved a #2 seed with a #1 going to Illinois even though they came in second in the conference. We were a #3 seed that year. Iowa and Minnesota also made the tourney that year. GO BLUE!

It was totally inconsistent and at times just plain bad. We got a lot of calls early in the second half but then it was as if they were trying to not see the MSU mayhem. This type of inconsistency is the hardest to deal with as a player.

With about 11 minutes left in the game Michigan gets into the bonus. There would be only one additional foul called on MSU over the next eleven minutes while there were six called on us until McGary was fouled intentionally with 8 seconds left. After the game I spent ½ an hour and reviewed the period right after the 11 minute mark going in slow motion at times and trying to be as fair as possible. The refs were just awful to us.

10:46 Hardaway drives to the hoop between two defenders both of them grab him and rip the ball away. No foul. We get the ball out of bounds

9:15 Burke drives the lane and is grabbed and pushed and has to dish the ball to Albrecht who misses an open three.

8:44 Both teams scramble for a missed shot rebound. An MSU player grabs Hardaway by the shoulder and pulls him backward as he positions for the rebound. The ball hits both of them and goes out. MSU gets the ball.

8:08 Burke drives and is fouled once before he get to a massive pick set by GRIII. He gets pushed in the back as he makes the layup. No call.

8:02 GRIII is backing up as Appling jumps into him and attempts a shot which McGary cleanly blocks. I think this is a fair call until during the time out they show highlights from a first half play where MSU did the exact same thing to us and did not get called for a foul (i.e. first defender on the ball bodies up on the drive and the second defender cleanly blocks the shot as it goes up.)

7:08 Burke get fouled on the drive with no call and dishes to Lavert who lays it in awkwardly as Nix throws him to the floor. No call.

6:45 Morgan pulls in a rebound with two player on his back. The as he turn to throw an outlet pass he is fouled again a couple of times by an MSU player trying to steal the ball. No call on either.

6:39 Burke drives and is grabbed and pushed and has to dish the ball. No call.

5:35 Burke is fouled at least three times on a drive to the hoop and makes the bucket anyway. He shouts something at the refs in displeasure which is something I do not remember him doing very often if ever. I guess he was fed up also.

4:36 Burke is fouled at least three times as he tries to bring the ball up the court. Only on the third shove that sends him to the floor does the whistle come. He makes both ends of the one and one. This is the first foul called on MSU in over 6 minutes and the last foul shot we get until McGary is fouled intentionally with only 8 seconds left. I could go on with a description of additional missed calls but we won so now I will just have some cheese with this whine.

3:53 Payne gets a rebound and then walks at least 4 steps after getting a rebound off a missed FT. No call. This was the worst miss of the entire game and almost unbelievable that it did not get called. Enough already!

TL;DR summary- The lack of consistency of calls in this game was shameful. However, this is not happening just in our games but across the board in B1G games this season. (I have watched quite a few non-Michigan games on BTN this year). I have been playing the game myself and watching B1G b-ball since Cazzie and I have never felt the refs were this piss poor. I have also ref’ed b-ball myself so I know how hard it is to be fair and balanced but SHEEESH it’s bad this year.

Yes it seems that in sports the joy is distributed as a zero sum game. Their joy equals our misery. Yet, joy leans to the positive overall due to our appreciation of the beauty of the game. Mgoblog adds to my joy by helping me to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the sports that I follow here with my fellow M fans.

Per the B1G statistics web site, Indiana averages 27.4 foul shots per game in the B1G so far this year. The entire of the league averages 18.4 per game across all league games. The standard deviation of the league is 3.8 foul shots per game around that mean. This means that Indiana is shooting foul shots at a rate greater than two standard deviations above the mean. This would happen randomly about one in a hundred times by chance (2.37 sd above the mean). The next highest teams Iowa and the Gophers and they are about 1 sd above the mean. Even Wisconsin at the low end is still well under 2 sd from the mean. Here is the....

Thanks for these posts. They always get me thinking. If you break out the offense and defense into rushing and passing categories does that matter? There are some who believe that the key stat in the NFL is yards per pass attempt. (see Craig Ross "The Obscene Diaries of a Michigan Fan") The team that gives up fewer and gains more per passing play seem to win a lot more in the NFL. How does the college data stack up?

Two springs ago, my brother and I were at the annual spring coaches clinic. Coaches were allowed to be on the sidelines to watch the first team offense in a live scrimmage against the first team defense. I was standing at about the 10 yard line. The ball was at the 15 yard line of the defense. Denard rolled out toward us on a pass play with several defenders in hot pursuit both in front of him and behind him. As he approched the LOS holding the ball with both hands, he quickly put it up and faked a pass thus freezing the defensive backs and the linebacker who was almost right in front of him. Just as quickly, he pulled it down and blew by the linebacker as his ankles broke and slipped btween two other defenders into the end zone a second later. I was not more than 15 feet from him when he did this. It happened so quick it was astounding. I turned to my brother and said "Holy Shit!." It was not something that I could imagine a human being doing. But, Denard sure is a wonderful human being as many of the above comments and clips prove. It's just that he has Dilithium inplants.

I agree with ST3 that Grant deserves the closest look. He also raises the issue of All American and All Big status. This would get me to think more about Rumeal, Juwan, Jalen, and Rickey Green (the fastest guard I have ever seen I think). It seems like the Fab FIve guys will never make the grade though.

We do have a couple of interesting Academic All Americans in Zach (the first in a long time). One other name that deserves a look already has the Hustle Award named after him, Steve Grote. Here is some added info on him for the youngsters on the blog.

Steve Grote: A four year starter, Grote was the epitome of a hustle player. He is one of 5 Michigan players to earn All-Conference honors in each of his four seasons. He is also the first player in NCAA history to play in 4 NCAA Tournaments.

Grote ranks 10th on Michigan’s all-time list with 358 career assists.

Grote averaged 11.5 ppg in his career and averaged double digits in scoring all 4 years of his Michigan career (1973-77).

A 1976 Sports Illustrated article said, “Grote has started 78 of 86 games since his freshman year and is frequently called the most punishing runner at Michigan, which makes Bo Schembechler wonder why he is wearing short pants and sneakers.”

Grote holds the school record for most career fouls with 407 and for most career disqualifications with 25.

In 1977 Michigan established the Steve Grote Hustle Award, given each year to the player who displays the greatest effort on the court, in both practice and games.

When I first looked at this acronym I thought it said AIRBAG. Maybe that is what the Iowa coaches should put isnide the running backs uniforms so that they will deploy on conatct to protect the few backs that they have left or maybe they should make them practice in bubble wrap.

a terrific all aroung athlete. We need him at QB but he clearly would make a great receiver too. Any way to put him on the field is good but we need someone with his talent to back up Denard. There is no way I would let him play receiver and get hurt with only Bellomy as backup to Denard. He is just too valuable as a QB to this team both now and in the future. That said, I would cackle with glee if he come on the field as a wide out once in a while but would be anxious as hell also about his getting hurt going up for a high pass or over the middle.

Officiating is really hard and I agree that I did not care who won and it was so tough to listen to the players whine about my calls that I decided not to do it any more. I still play in YMCA leagues at age 62 with kids who are younger than the tshirts I wear. I still whine at the refs now. What can I say other than I am a deeply flawed and hopeless whiner at the refs as are a significant number of the players and coaches as mentioned above. Still thought the stats were worth sharing. Again make of them what you may.

Hey I just was trying to get objective. I had no idea that there would be these differentials which I admit may be multicausal but cleaarly staistically significant. There is not easily accessible data about home v. away. Please notice that Iowa Minnesota which have similar W/L records to Uof M had 550 and 200 more foul shot attempts than Michigan. The data does show that foul shots attempts are significantly associated with wins. (No surprise there.) Here is the data table for all the teams and seasons team free throws and free throws for opponents.

leaves off Brayon Edwards, Ryan Mundy, Donovan Warren, Martell Webb, Perry Dorrestein. The Wikipedia seems the most complete as far as including all active players. They even include Ryan Mallet and Justin Boren as Michigan players.

Hopefully some of the other D lineman like Ash, Wahington or Brink will surprise us like Heininger did this year and give us better depth than one might otherwise think we have. I also believe that with another spring and summer set of practices, growth and conditioning and the outstanding coaching that seems to be going on with the defense that this is more likely than not going to be the case. Also with the depth and competition at linbacker, even competent D lin play will be enough for us to be one bitch to run against next year.

If you do the math $516 million less Nebraska=$512 million divided by 85 scholarships times 13 seasons x11 teams = is only about $42,000 per player per year. Northwestern tuition, room and board is now over $54,000 per year so I guess ticket prices will go up there.

Charles Michael Romes (born in Verdun, France) was an NFL cornerback with the Buffalo Bills and the San Diego Chargers. He played college football at North Carolina Central University.

Richard Tardits (born in Biarritz, France) played college football at the University of Georgia. He held the record for most sacks in a career at his Alma Mater, until David Pollock broke his record in 2004. He was referred to as “Le Sack” by fans because of his French birth.

Here are the two lists of active players. Remember that databaseFootbal is through2010. Wiki is probalbly more current. Getting the real facts could be a real chore. Grr garbage in garbage out. Italics and bold are areas of disagreement.

I checked out the above names and several of them were in the 2010 draft or undrafted free agents who did not play until 2010. Still it makes me lose some faith in databaseFootball.com that they do not list Joe Staley who is going to the Pro Bowl this year and was active before 2010 (drafted in 2007 1st Round). I will do some added checking to see how far off some of the other data is.

I bow at your feet my Hegemon of Mgoblog. This post was both educational and fun. More please. "Was Brady Hoke lucky that Tressel was caught lying? Maybe. Maybe he pulled a Peter Wiggin and dropped a few well placed emails. " This is deep. How many of the Mgoblogosphere have read Enders Game let alone the entire series which I assume you have. Very deep reference, very deep...but fun for me anyway. Write on brother, write on.

Amen to all of the above. The championship games and mega conferences are all about TV/money. There needs to be a business case for a playoff and those who are making money now need to see that they will make even more money with a playoff before this crap-ola B(C)S system will change.

was actually just after the Revolutionary War. The British had ceded Ohio to the US but someone forgot to tell the Indians. The battle happened just outside of Maumee about 10 miles south of the Michigan border. The Anthony Wayne school district does not include the battle site but who cares. This is Ohio for God sake (to paraphrase BH). The battle actually allowed Ohio to be safely settled after the Treaty of Greenville with the Indians (which we promptly violated- this is OHIO FOR GOD SAKE) and the next thing you know they founded tOSU. In summary, its all his fault and we should be mad at Anthony Wayne (the person not the school district).

The twelve square mile area that included the fort and battle site was divided for settlement bustrophredonically! (This is the word of the day and if you say it in the presence of Groucho Marx a little duck will come down to congratulate you but I will you look it up). Here is a clue.

I don't know about others on this blog, over my sixty years I always learned more and grew more from my failures than my successes. I am so looking forward to seeing the growth of our players and coaches over the rest of the year come what may.

We held Alex Carder to his worst game of the year (less than 200 yards, no TD's and one Int.) He almost beat Illinois. He put up almost 500 yards on UConn. We have seen a very good quarterback in that young man. It gives me confidence that we can deal with Persa as I feel that Western probably has similar talent to NW given the close games that both NW and Western gave Illinois. Being on the road for the first time may take us down just a peg but I think this pass defense might just be for real.

Pretty incredible scenery on the Na Pali trail and up on the Palis that overlook the ocean in Koke state park. Easy to learn surfing at Hanalei, sunsets in Poipu...... damn I was just thinking about football and now I feel like I need a Hawaii fix.

My impression was that after the first two drives by WMU the DB's began to play the receivers much closer to the line of scrimmage. Our DB's seemed very soft on the first two series and were possibly feeling out their ability to match WMU WR speed or just to avoid getting burned on an early deep route. This allowed Carder to hit lots of quick passes given we were 8 yards off at times on the first two WMU drives. Carder ealy on had lots of three step drops that would hard to get much pressure on him when he was throwing so quickly. I think the tight coverage may have taken some of that away and allowed more rush pressure to develop. I agree tackling was very crisp by our DB especially compared to last year.

in fact I am sure of it. Note that I said that I enjoyed the band more not less. Looks like I am not the only one who missed the stats and I am glad that they are fixing that.

I have been going to games since 1957 so I guess I do enjoy the game day experience or would not have gone to the last 300 games or so. Thought the board was just such a place where somewhat off topic subjects could be shared. My "hippie" sister in law is a Lutheran school teacher. Not sure why she comes in for name calling. She was just happy to hear the band better for a change.

The DB's were soft at first but as the game went on they began to press the Western recievers at the line and we did just fine. Took away those dinks that led to the first WM touchdown. Another fav was when Kovacs faked the blitz and fell into coverage and slapped away the pass. Earlier in the game Carder threw some nice passes into the blitz to get decent yards. Wonder if that was Kovacs or a coaches call.

but not as explosive. I squirmed through that entire game as he constantly eluded or D line and scrabled for yards. I do not think there were as many plays that were actually set up for him to run. My recollection is that most of the yards were off of scrambles. This was a game I would like to forget. So thanks a lot for making me squirm again. Grrrr.

Watching Bball at UM since Cazzie and last years team managing to make the NCAA tourney with a win over Sparty at El was the most fun ever. Right up there with the national champ year for fun and intensity. Just loved the intensity and scrappiness.

there is a part of me that feels really bad for the reputation of the Big Ten and somewhat bad for all of OSU players who actually were clean and played by the rules. (More than 50% of them I would guess). I have no pity for the multitude of knuckle dragging a-hole OSU fans I have met living here in Toledo, Ohio on the front lines of the U of M/OSU war zone. Indeed, nothing but Schadenfreude for them.

I will add a comment that my brother made to me on this subject of the corruption of college football by money and it seems worthy of further discussion. The problem with college football (and to some extent basketball with the rare Kobe, Lebron, like exceptions) is that there is no minor league for high school students to choose. In the other big money sports, (baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf) there are no barriers to going pro to make some money right away if that is your interest instead of school.

One of his runs for a TD starts from a dead stop at his 35 and seven seconds later he is in the end zone after outrunning the d backs. Speaking of outrunning the d backs, he seems to do it over and over in these clips. This is D 3 competition but still seems big AND fast.

Just checked the math and there are about 68 (22%) million people in the listed Mdiwest states and about 81 (26%) million in Ca+ Tx+ Fla. This added 4% additional population accounts for some of the Rivals 100 / NFL draft differential.

On the film there is a breakaway run for a TD and from about a dead stop at his 40 to their twenty takes less than 5 seconds on the video. He outruns the safeties who have the angle on him to the endzone. Hmm not fake and pretty fast i'd say.

Toledo has a brand new arena The Huntington Center downtown for our Walleye minor league hockey team with about 8000 capacity and hotels all around it. It's a beautiful facility and a fairly neutral venue. It is easily accesible to many of the CCHA teams. I would push for that if the Joe is considered too much of a home venue for UM and MSU since they play there regularly.

Did anyone else see Morris get pushed in the back on that last drive to the hoop. Zebras "letting them play" if it wasn't for the call against Morris driving against Sullinger a couple minutes or so before. Poor Sulinger flopped to the floor. Can you believe it? He has 80 pounds on Morris. Same official watching both plays. aaarrggghh!

Smotrycz actually was able to get to the hoop on the two breakaway layups without being caught from behind. I thought they would catch him both times and I was wrong. Maybe MS(phew) just didn't have the heart to chase him down.

My favorite plays of the game were Smotrycz' move under the bucket finish, fouled and made the ft. Very old school and I loved it. Morgans pick and roll to stop the bleeding late in the second half. Warmed the cockles of my basketball heart. That is how the game is supposed to be played.

He's the most fundamentally sound freshman big man that I have seen. Is he really that much better due to the great coaching he got from hisw dad and will he plateau at where he is now, not that he's not very good now just really wonder about his future growth/ improvement relative to others.;

Posts that are well reasoned, thoughtful, funny, informative, and challenge stereotypical thinking are the reason that I check out mgoblue every day. Brian's posts clearly meet all of the above satndards as do many of those of you who post here regularly. We should hold ourselves and those who post here to those standards and gently educate those who fail. I post little, read much and personally neg bang only the serial offenders. Go Blue and MGo Blue.

Enjoyed this post. As an undersized center I learned than size was a only a significant advantage if matched with speed. (physics 101) The big slow nose guards were no problem for me but the small fast ones were a bitch. I remember blocking one of those speedy guys who was stunting out of the play and watching him after being blocked away fron the play still have the speed to catch our running back from behind on a sweep! Nasty combo speed and size and its what you need especially on D. Hope to wee our young D backs bulk up and cause some damage next year.

Has anyone here ever seen us win a game where we gave up three interceptions/turnovers and the other team had none? I have been wathching UM football for about 50 years and cannot recall a sinlge one. We are allowing teams to score on about half their posessions so we cannot afford to give three away any where on the field especially when it cost us points in the red zone. The two interceptions in the end zone were clearly the difference in this game.

Denard has learned to be patient on runs and he will learn to be patient when passing and occasionally throw the ball away rather than to try force passes into double coverage. This team is as exciting as any I have ever seen at UM in 50 yearas and I cannot wait to see the next couple years unfold with this offense and an improved defense. Go Blue!

make a difference? Coaches almost always defer to the second half when they win the toss. Is there evidence that winning the toss has a measurable effect on wins and losses or on points scored or given up? Since you have found that being the home team has a 9% advantage, I wonder if there are stats on the effect of winning the coin toss. Does anyone even track this stuff? I posted this question on the board and people had very strong opinions about whether to take the ball or defer the choice. What got me thinking about this was how good our offense is and how bad our defense is. Given the likelihood of shootout games I think I want to score first if I can. Data beat opinion.

about this choice? I was intrigued by the posting on when to go for it on 4th down and it seemed to be based on fairly good data. What is the point value of winning the toss? If there are two equally matched teams, how much difference does it make to win the toss? Mathlete where are you? You are our only hope Obi-wan. We wander in the data-less darkness living off opinions rather than fact. Would it not be useful to know what you give up or gain on average by winning or losing the toss? When did coaches begin to decide to defer and why? etc. etc.

Having played the position for 4 years in HS, I can tell you that snapping the ball is always one of your nightmares. One awful memory from my senior year comes to mind.

We are playing away and on my first long snap of the game I sent it back low. The punter was able to field it but then bobbled and the punt was awful. The coach benched me and sent in my back up. On the next punt he proceeded to snap it over the punters head (no way was he goint to snap one low) and the ball went into the end zone where they recovered for a TD. This was the difference in the game. Coach put me back in and I almost sh** my self every long snap the rest of the game. Hard to worry about your assignment and blocking every play while praying to avoid another 4th down.

There was no shot gun back then and all the other snaps were direct to the qb but even that gets dicey on wet cold snowy muddy etc. days and I can tell you the qb never gets the blame when one of those goes bad. There now...that feel better to get that off my 60 year old chest. Just a little center empathy out there in blog land goes a long way.

Tate is. Devin isn't (yet). Tate sees the field and reads the option better (for now). But I agree with those who note Devin's long ball skills. What a great problem to have...three talented qb's. IMO we should be redshirting both Tate and Devin at some point so that we are deep at qb for the next 4 years. We are also deep at tackle and at running back and pretty deep at wr too. I just wish the same problem existed on the defensive side at several positions. Sooo glad that Denard and Tate are only slightly nicked up.

I think that Roh is a much better DE than LB so that when he has to play LB we lose twice. We lose his motor and edge rush from the DE and his LB play is just not as good as his DE play. I think we are palpably better with Roh at DE and Herron at LB. Hopefully Herron will be back soon.

I think that Roh is a much better DE than LB so that when he has to play LB we lose twice. We lose his motor and edge rush from the DE and his LB play is just not as good as his DE play. I think we are palpably better with Roh at DE and Herron at LB. Hopefully Herron will be back soon.

Do we have a coaching issue or a talent issue, neither or both? Does the fact that we are so thin on D contribute to less talent on the special teams. When I played in high school and college. the younger player cut their teeth on special teams and showed their speed stregnth and courage especially those who wanted to play showed up to play there and get noticed.

I am an old WLB/SS/Center. Never got hurt on offense. Both knees and R wrist hurt playing D and still hurt 40 years later. All my injuries occurred during practice not in games. Any stats on injuries by poition out there? Are Defenders more likely to miss games than Offensive players? Are live practices just as likely to hurt you as games?

I asked Barwis about his injury prevention conditioning at a coaches clinic this past spring and they have a special set of exercises that all the players must do to protect neck and shoulders. I think for knee and ankles they rely more on bracing than conditioning. They brace all the O-lineman even if their knees are healthy and they brace/tape all ankles.

I feel we are arguing about whether mice like cheese. Football is an athletic endeavor that requires characteristics that every coach that recruits look for in players they want for their teams. Size, speed, stregnth, brains, endurance, leadership, coachability, and heart. Any team with more players that combine these characteristics is going to be hard to beat. The more interesting question that comes up is to what extent each of these interact ( that goes to the multiple regression question mentioned above). Good post in my book. I di think theat this blog is more thoughtful than most. (or maybe were all just football nerds).

Thanks for this excellent post. I couldnot help but notice that the weak side LB looks like he releases the tight end to persue the play to his left. Maybe we should think about throwing the ball back to that side if the LB is going to release that early to persue the play. I will go back over the game and see how often that happens. The wide out is going up field and taking the corner with him and the safeties are rotating quickly to the strong side play action. A pump fake right and a throw back to the TE left looks good to me.

What really bothers me aboutr Ezeh is his inability to get off of a block. Does he lack upper body stregnth? He seems to catch blockers and then he is done. He can't shed them or push them off. He takes bad angles on the inside running game and ends up chasing people from behind he should have tackled closer to the line if the angle of pursuit had been right. He never seem to make much difference on the blitz unless he comes through untouched. I hope we get a chance to see Moundros or one of the other back ups in the next two games if we get ahead. Perhaps Ezeh is the best we have and he will continue to improve. Hate to be so harsh but I played some linebacker and he is hard to watch. Good enought to win at ND with him in there so maybe I should just shadup.

It was clear that the safety was thinking interception instead of bend don't break. We will see a lot of games like this against quarterbacks who are as good or better than Crist. Hopefully the d backs will watch the film and learn. Still they did intercept a few and we seemed to get good pressure up front at times. I give the the overall defense a C- but if you were to look at the scores its a mix of B, D and F plays. Enough to win at ND with the best quarterback performance in the history of the the world --no the universe (dlithium crystals are not availble here yet except somewhere inside Denard).

Do not bother to rush/blitz Ezeh since 90% of the time he cannot get off the block. Does he lack upper body stregnth? He just seem to catch the players trying to block him and he's done at that point. Can't weem to shed them. Seems to take bad angles on the inside run game. No motor like Roh or Mouton. I seriously would consider letting Moundros get some experience if we get ahead in the next couple games.

Yipes we could have lost based on d back inexperience. We need to get a lot better or we might just repeat the agony of last season. A better quarterback will beat us even if we have superman/batman/flash/silver surfer for a quarterback ourselves. Oh-- we do.

On the last ND pass of the half to the three, the cornerback had no one in front of him and should have continued to drop into coverage but the safety was late getting over to that side as well. we were lucky.

It seems to me that bad teams get behind and have to throw the ball more and more recklessly. Could turnover margin just be an indication of a team that gets behind and has to throw more? How many of the fumbles are those of a qb getting blindsided while trying to make one of those desperate passes? Do bad teams have more turnovers because they are behind most of the time?

I statrted going to U of M games in the 1950's with my U of M parents and they loved the Slippery Rock schtich. How long has this been going on ( can you here the Mo-town?) been going on.... Reaaly does anybody know when they first started announcing the score?